In this study the mechanisms that control attention in natural scenes was examined. It was explored whether familiarity with the environment makes participants more sensitive to changes or novel events in the scene. Previous investigation of this issue has been based on viewing 2D pictures/images of simple objects or of natural scenes, a situation which does not accurately reflect the challenges of natural vision. In order to examine this issue, as well as the differences between 2D and 3D environments, two experiments were designed in which the general task demands could be manipulated. The results revealed that familiarity with the environment significantly increased the time spent fixating regions in the scene where a change had occurred. The results support the hypothesis that we learn the structure of natural scenes over time, and that attention is attracted by deviations from the stored scene representation. Such a mechanism would allow attention to objects or events that were not explicitly on the current cognitive agenda.

Today’s assembly operations represent about 15-70% of all manufacturing time and about 40% of all manufacturing costs, and manual assembly processes are still a significant portion of today’s assembly operations. Furthermore, today’s manufacturing environment requires a well-trained and flexible workforce that can easily adapt to changing products and processes. Unfortunately, manufacturing training is often performed using the master-apprentice model in the assembly line resulting in unsafe and expensive training conditions as this model is a slow and expensive process. Previous research has considered the use of virtual environments (VEs) for training purposes in different fields such as aviation, driving, construction, medicine, and manufacturing among many others. However, to this date, no assembly studies have been successful in providing a positive transfer of knowledge between virtual environments and real environments. On the other hand, several eye-tracking studies in radiology, air-traffic control, driving, and reading show that participants with higher levels of experience have different eye-scan patterns than participants with lower levels of experience. However, it is unknown how visual scans are affected by practice. Furthermore, several empirical visuomotor studies of task-oriented processes in real environments show that observers fixated their eyes on the areas that are crucial to the required task. However, we do not know the necessary visual elements to observe when performing and when learning how to perform an assembly task, nor the effects of following visual instructions and having visual distractors during this process. Finally, we have yet to establish what observation differences may exist between real and virtual environments with regards to these unknowns. This work presents the results of an assembly task which required participants to follow visual instructions and to select assembly objects among similar distractors. This assembly task was performed for ten cycles in real and virtual environments, and we used an eye-tracking device to register participants’ visual scans. We successfully identified the areas that are needed to observe for an assembly task in both environments and the effect of visual instructions and distractors in a visual scan. We found statistically significant differences for visual scans by assembly cycle and environment, with a p-value of <0.05. We also identified a connection between learning curves and participant eye scan, showing a significant decrease in the incidence of eye tracking metrics (visit count, visit duration, fixation count and fixation duration) between the first and the tenth cycles (ΔΜ), particularly for visual distractors ranging from 37.36% to 48.77%, and for visual instructions ranging from 35.17% to 54.82%. We found that participants’ observations became more efficient with practice, not only in terms of identifying distractors and following visual instructions but also in terms of developing an ability to observe key visual elements. For the RE we found a positive Pearson correlation between the proportion of fixation duration and assembly cycle for the key visual areas with p-values<0.002 and a negative Pearson correlation between the proportion of fixation duration for the non-key visual areas with p-values<0.046. Similar results were obtained for the VE.

As a result of improved hardware, Virtual Reality (VR) has made a return to the digital entertainment market. The tools to create VR applications are now readily available and numerous developers are attempting to create engaging experiences. Concurrently, eye tracking technology is increasingly implemented in VR hardware, enabling better immersion and analytics. Due to its recent popularization, few tools for analyzing VR experiences exist. As such, this study aimed to find a method for collecting and visualizing eye tracking data to that end. A case study was conducted to answer these questions, wherein software for collecting, saving, and visualizing gaze data was constructed. A user test to assess the program's accuracy and viability followed. The study found a performance friendly way to get and save data using software provided by the hardware manufacturers, and resulted in a system for visualization in which the user's gaze is played back. The user test confirmed the system's accuracy, and identified possible behavioral patterns, suggesting the software can be used for analysis. The study provides a base for further research. / Som en följd av den senare tidens hårdvaruutveckling har Virtual Reality (VR) återvänt till den digitala underhållningsmarknaden. Verktygen för att skapa VRapplikationer är numera tillgängliga för alla, och många utvecklare har gett sig i kast med att skapa engagerande upplevelser för mediet. Samtidigt används ögonspårande teknologi inom VR i ökande utsträckning, vilket möjliggör bättre inlevelse samt analytiska möjligheter. I egenskap av sin nyvunna popularitet finns få verktyg och metoder för att analyzera VR-upplevelser. Därför ämnar denna studie samla och visualisera data från ögonspårande hårdvara i det syftet. En fallstudie genomfördes för att svara på hur detta kan göras, i vilken mjukvara för att samla, spara, och visa ögondata skapades. Ett användartest för att bedöma programmets träffsäkerhet och användbarhet följde. Studien hittade ett prestandavänligt sätt att samla och spara datan, och resulterade i ett visualiseringssystem som återspelar användarens blick. Användartestet bekräftade systemets precision, och identifierade möjliga beteendemönster, vilket antyder att mjukvaran kan användas för analys. Studien lägger en grund för vidare forskning.